Image credit Forecast the Facts
The above image translates the data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Climate Data Center’s (NCDC) into a color-coded reflection of record high temperatures in the lower 48 from 1895 to 2012.
Underground (weather) historian Christopher Burton numerically quantifies the colors on the map in the chart below:
Chart credit NCDC
The chart represents the total number of NCDC sites that recorded daily and/or monthly record high and low temperatures last year.
The first four columns measure daily and monthly record highs and lows rather than all-time highs and lows.
The fifth and sixth columns indicate the number of recorded all-time highs and lows.
“You look out the window and you see climate change in action,” says Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. “This is the way it gets manifested.”
Peter Sinclair, documentarian, describes 2012 as the “year climate change got real” for Americans and others on the planet.
Source: ThinkProgress, January 5 and 8, 2013
